The influence of project manager’s cognitive styles on project success in the Malaysian construction industry / Muneera binti Esa

• Main Author: Muneera, Esa
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: HD Industries. Land use. Labor; TH Building construction
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5524/1/MuneeraEsa_BHA090005.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/5524/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

Considerable attention has been devoted to project success which is at the heart of project management. This interest led to the development of a wide diversity of project success topic. There are many factors that contribute to a successful implementation of a project, hence it's not surprising that there have been many research conducted in this field. Over the years scholars have investigated and analysed what they deem as factors that directly impacts the degree of success of a project. It has been revealed that the effective performance of a project manager is the most critical factor affecting project success. It is also reported that soft skills or human-related factors contribute more to project success than technical skills but these human-related factors received insufficient attention especially with regard to the project manager’s abilities and performance. As such, there is an imperative need to investigate the effect of humanrelated factors on the project success by project managers that seems to have gained little attention in Malaysian construction industry. Many studies have investigated the project manager’s leadership style, social skills and the relative importance of critical factors across the project life cycle and their effect on successful project outcomes. However, a very little study has been conducted on the project manager’s cognitive styles and their effect on project success in construction industry. The main aim of this research is to explore how the cognitive styles and its attributes influence the achievement of project success by construction project managers. This study adopted single method research design by employing quantitative method of data collection in Malaysian construction industry. This research found out that project managers tend to stimulate their cognitive competence by cooperating Planning Style, Knowing Style and Creating Styles attributes which formed the cognitive styles construct in achieving project success from the aspect of project usability, value of project outcomes to users and the project delivery. This study has provided information and empirical findings on iii how the cognitive styles constructs have influences on the achievement of project success by Malaysian construction project managers. This research indicated that by paying greater attention to this human-related factor relationship, project managers will be able to demonstrate a significant role in project completion successfully by applying the proposed CoSProS (Cognitive Styles and Project Success) Framework. Finally, the research argues to include cognitive styles as topics for discussion in every project manager’s educational training programme so this subject be better understood and more effectively managed. This study also has highlighted possible ways to foster the cognitive style among project managers through training programmes and ultimately pull this so called human-related issues ‘out of the closet’.